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Indiespensable
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Fup. Store Cat.

Chapter 90

In Loving Memory
Fup. Store Cat.
1988 — 2007
fup 18 fup 19
Click here for details on our specially designed Fup. Store Cat. T-shirts!
Fup. Store Cat.
Fup watercolor courtesy of reader Linda McDougall. Click here for a larger view.
Bear
bear 		Zooey
zooey

see Fup's photo album

The sun bears down on Portland, reclaiming shadows from tall buildings and trees. Ninety degrees at one o'clock in the afternoon — in May, only. A dozen blocks from home, Fup lies in a sliver of shade barely wide enough to accommodate her body.

Her ears begin to bake, and sure enough, the cool black rectangle of shadow under the awning now sports two black fins rising out of its far edge. She scrunches a bit more and the fins disappear.

What she wouldn't do for a breeze.

Closing her eyes helps to focus on breathing — in with the cool air, out with the hot. Mind over matter. Next time she looks, however, the shadow hasn't grown a whit. She counts ants to pass the time: One, two, three, popping their heads from the loam, four, five, six, seven, eight...

By the time she reaches one hundred, either the shade will return — passage to the end of the block, at least — or she'll just have to buck up and cook.

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The Trip to Kahani

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Read the press release.

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Fup's Picks

That Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk About How They Became Who They Are That Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk About How They Became Who They Are
by Bruce Eric Kaplan

"All these cats lead exciting and varied lives wholly independent of the human race," notes the editor in his Introduction. Well, duh. Scant attention has been paid to the role of community in modern cat culture, so what a relief that here, finally, fifty articulate felines set the record straight. Funny, sad, occasionally shocking, but never less than true, these brave monologues reaffirm our interdependency in ways that choreographed public displays such as Paws Across America never can.

Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs
by Amy Hempel

In "Dog Kibble," Tasha Baxter's verse exhibits a brutal economy of words: "Life is never meaningless," her villanelle announces, "there is always food." Here and throughout this collection these authors demand your attention, as if to bark, "You can send me to my room for yelling at the neighbors but you cannot silence what woofs in my heart!" Among the selections nominated for Best American Writing by Pets 2000 are Bob Barker Barry's sordid and hilarious hallucinogenic escapades with Lynda; a tragic, posthumous prose poem by Marrow Irving; and Sadie Louise Lamott's "Spoon River Sadie Louise," a wildly metered exploration of the cross-cultural dynamics within a household occupied by dogs, cats, birds, and small children. The sheer intellect of these collected pieces will renew your faith in dogs.

Is Your Cat Too Fat?Is Your Cat Too Fat?
by Bronwen Meredith

Too fat for what? And what business is it of this Meredith person's anyway? Bronwen sounds like the kind of lady I wouldn't like at all.

 
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